The Panthers took their first stumble in Ohio Valley Conference play last week at Tennessee-Martin.

They lost for the first time in 14 OVC games and fell to third place behind UTM and Tennessee State.

In order to keep their postseason hopes alive, they have to rebound this weekend against TSU.

Head coach Mark Hutson challenged the seniors.

“Our seniors know that for them to continue playing football (beyond the regular season), we must win this week’s game,” he said.

The Panther’s loss to UTM left UTM and TSU as the only undefeated teams in the conference.

The Tigers are unbeaten just one year after finishing the 2005 season 1-6 and scoring just 92 points.

This season, they have scored 122 points through just four conference games.

Transfer quarterback Antonio Heffner is a big reason for the improvement.

“He’s amazing,” said Panthers defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni. “Every team they’ve played, he’s made look silly.”

Heffner has passed for more than 1,500 yards and has rushed for five touchdowns, including three in last week’s 29-7 win against Samford.

While Heffner has passed the ball well, Javarris Williams’ has run the ball just as effectively. He leads the OVC in rushing with more than 130 yards per game, just ahead of Eastern’s Vincent Webb Jr.

The balance is a headache Bellantoni is not looking forward to.

“Pick your poison,” he said. “Are you going to stop the quarterback in the pass game and the quarterback in the run game or are you going to try and stop Javarris Williams?”

TSU head coach James Webster doesn’t mind letting others know what he’s going to do.

“You’ve got to ride your horse,” he said. “Whether Heffner’s in the game or not, I want to see Javarris. I’m just excited that we got that guy.”

Williams is coming off a game in which he ran for 162 yards and had 35 receiving yards.

“He is a talented running back,” Hutson said. “He has excellent speed, excellent vision and has made big plays for them. It’ll be a challenge for us this week.”

For the Panthers, this is the biggest game in a long time.

Afer going undefeated in 2005, Hutson admitted this is a must-win game.

“We gotta win this game to stay in the playoff race,” he said. “I don’t know how much more to state the importance of this game.”

Bellantoni said worrying about other teams isn’t going to get them into the postseason.

“We gotta hope that Tennessee-Martin loses and you can worry about Tennessee State has to have a loss,” he said. “All that is just nervous energy wasted. If we don’t show up and play against a really good Tennessee State team on Saturday, nothing anybody else does is going to matter. It’s either win and the dream lives or lose and the dream is over.”